Friday, September 12, 2008
Add them all up and then subtract
What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winner were losers, successes failures, rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to blackguards for petty cash, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? (Joseph Heller, Catch-22)
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3 comments:
i see you've come to my favorite chapter
Yeah, it was excellent. I love how all good books have a surreal, contemplative, walking around in the middle of the night chapter (I'm thinking mostly of Crying of Lot 49 here)
www.juditembakikan.com/
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